Several issues linger in Hampton cigarette sting

Requests for special grand jury, AG's opinion still pending; council stalls on next move; three lawsuits filed

May 26, 2013|By Peter Dujardin, pdujardin@dailypress.com | 247-4749

HAMPTON — Several significant issues linger in a controversial undercover cigarette sting run by the Hampton Police Division, even as several members of the City Council appear to want to "move on."

Hampton's top prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell, hasn't yet decided how to respond to a civil rights group's recent call for a special grand jury to investigate the undercover operation for possible criminal misconduct on the part of officers or city officials.

Meanwhile, the city is still awaiting an opinion from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli regarding the cigarette sting. The city wants to know whether the Hampton Police Division was within its power to raise and spend millions of dollars in its undercover operation, Blue Water Tobacco, apparently without the oversight of anyone else in city government.

The city also wants to know what it should do with the more than $700,000 in Blue Water Tobacco's bank account; the nine vehicles that were acquired during the sting for nearly $400,000 and have been parked at Fort Monroe for months; and other property.

Meantime, the seven-member City Council has not yet decided whether to follow through on City Manager Mary Bunting's plan last fall to hire an outside investigator as part of her promise "to ensure that all angles of this matter are fully vetted and understood."

On Oct. 19, Bunting told Hampton residents that she would hire an outside attorney from Richmond to conduct a broad review of the cigarette sting "from its inception and conclusion" and look at the actions of "multiple people" who participated.

That external review was never conducted, however, because it has lacked a green light from the City Council.

Moreover, there are three pending defamation lawsuits in Hampton Circuit Court in which two high-ranking police officers — one retired, and one still there — are suing the department's former chief and several other past and present officers for millions of dollars.

The city has hired three local attorneys for those current and former officers, and another lawyer to represent the city.

The Blue Water Tobacco cigarette sting was designed to crack down on illegal cigarette traffickers — or those evading taxes by buying cigarettes on the black market and selling them in high-tax states. In the operation, which initially began as a joint venture with a federal agency, officers would buy cigarettes from manufacturers and sell them out of a non-descript warehouse on Aberdeen Road.

But though more than $4 million flowed through the company during the 19-month operation, no arrests resulted from it. Cash generated by the business was used not only to buy more cigarettes, but also to purchase high-end vehicles; fund out-of-town officer trips to New York, Las Vegas and other cities; and buy electronics.

Former Police Chief Charles R. Jordan Jr. shut the operation down in January 2012 following a complaint about officer spending, with ensuing Virginia State Police and internal investigations. Jordan resigned in November, a month after being put on paid leave.

Here's a look at some of the pending aspects of the case:

Grand jury request

Rudy Langford, president of the Coalition for Justice for Civil Rights, is pressing Hampton's top prosecutor to refer the case to an outside entity for further investigation.

In a letter in early April, Langford asked Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell to request the appointment of a special grand jury and special prosecutor to look into the operation for possible criminal misconduct.

Langford contended the police department "egregiously misused and misappropriated" public money in the operation and that the city can't be trusted to investigate itself.

But Bell hasn't yet made a decision on whether to do so. "I am looking into the issues he raised, and I will respond once I have concluded my inquiry," Bell said in an email.

"I have quite a few items I must review as well as multiple agencies and individuals with whom I need to speak," Bell wrote. "I will make my decision based solely on facts and not opinion so as not to be swayed one way or another."

Langford has asked for a meeting with Bell, as well. "We are asking him not to make a decision based on politics," Langford said.

Since Bell previously told him that the prosecutor's office doesn't do investigations and is not a fact-finding body, Langford wondered what Bell is considering to make the decision. It would be better, Langford asserted, for Bell to "refer it out" and let an outside special grand jury do the fact-finding work.

AG's opinion coming

Last fall, City Attorney Cynthia Hudson requested an opinion from the Attorney General's Office on various aspects related to the sting.

Among other things, that request asked the AG's office to determine if law enforcement agencies statewide are authorized to raise and spend cash during "churning" operations without a council appropriation or other city involvement.